If Marc Guéhi is to leave Crystal Palace in January, Liverpool are reportedly his only realistic destination this winter. The picture looks very different in the event that he holds out until the summer.
Guéhi has made it abundantly clear that he will not be a Crystal Palace player in 2026–27. However, the Eagles are hopeful of hanging on to their talismanic captain for the remainder of the current campaign after accepting that he would move on for free in summer 2026 when they turned down Liverpool’s £35 million ($45.8 million) bid on Deadline Day.
The Premier League champions still retain an interest in Guéhi and the feeling in south London at least is that their centre back could still turn out at Anfield at some point thsi season.
Palace are operating under the assumption that Liverpool are the only team who would be willing to make a bid this winter for a player who will be available on a free transfer six months later, per Sky Sports News.
Liverpool are far from the only contender for Guéhi’s signature. Manchester United have recently emerged as an interested party, while the La Liga duo of Barcelona and Real Madrid are thought to be circling. German champions Bayern Munich are singled out as a very keen onlooker by Sky Sports News.
However, the same report also stresses that these clubs are not expected to make a bid for Guéhi in January. The European teams can open talks with the England international as soon as New Year’s Day ahead of a potential free transfer once his Palace contract expires on June 30, while United will legally have to wait until July to do that.
Liverpool could also wait until the summer window to finally seal this long-awaited deal, but the Reds may not have that luxury given their current struggles.
Jamie Carragher: Liverpool Need to Spend in January
The reigning Premier League champions find themselves slumped in eighth place. VAR can only be blamed up to a point, and there are clear defensive issues riddled throughout Arne Slot’s side.
Former Liverpool centre back Jamie Carragher has pointed towards the lack of cover in his old position as a major area of concern for the season going forward.
“Liverpool need to spend in January, they need to buy a centre back, they should have bought a centre back in the summer,” he told Sky Sports.
“They didn’t, and then the one centre back they did buy, [Giovanni] Leoni, a young Italian player, looked fantastic in the game that he played, a Carabao Cup game. Unfortunately, he got an ACL injury, so we won’t see him until next season.
“Liverpool are probably one injury away at centre back from really derailing the season, so they have to go to the market in January.”
Carragher was in favour of most of the business carried out over the summer. Florian Wirtz may not have quite lived up to his price tag just yet but brings the promise of another creative outlet, while both full back positions were in need of strengthening.
The departure of Darwin Núñez and Luis Díaz, on top of the tragic passing of Diogo Jota, undoubtedly created room in the squad for two new forwards. Yet, Carragher questioned why Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitiké were both signed as out-and-out strikers.
“When you’ve spent that type of money, and it just becomes one or the other ... it doesn’t feel very Liverpool-like to me,” he sniffed, “ ... or certainly the way we’ve conducted our transfer business in the last few years.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Marc Guehi’s January Transfer Future Becomes Clearer—Report.
